STRATFORD — Her mouth grew dry. And then her mouth grew drier. If your team is down four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning of the state championship and a 69-game winning streak is on the line, whose mouth wouldn't grow dry, right?

Coach Davina Hernandez grew a little lightheaded, too. Ignited by a 15-pitch walk drawn by her No. 9 hitter Bella Russo, her Southington softball team rallied for four runs to tie the score against Cheshire Saturday in the Class LL title game at DeLuca Field. There were terrific plays. There were a few blunders. This was the 1 vs. 2 showdown all of state softball awaited, and it was living up to the hype. Who wouldn't get a little dizzy, right?

"I kept getting water during the game, and I was joking that I couldn't talk anymore because I didn't have any saliva left," Hernandez said, building to a big laugh by this point. "It comes with my condition. I get very dry. I get dizzy. It wasn't stopping me. I threw some water back, put my hands on my knees for a second there, and I was all right. The sun is tough."

There is a larger explanation here. Davina Hernandez has lupus. She enjoys saying lupus doesn't have her.

The medical journals explain it as a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when the body's immune system attacks its own tissues and organs. There is no known cure for lupus, only management of the symptoms. Inflammation can affect joints, kidneys, skin, brain, blood cells, heart, etc.

Brad Horrigan / Hartford Courant

Southington softball head coach Davina Hernandez.

Southington softball head coach Davina Hernandez.

(Brad Horrigan / Hartford Courant)

Yet if Southington's 5-4 seven-inning comeback for its 70th consecutive victory, a third successive state title and 17th overall may be used for medical diagnosis, let it be noted that Hernandez displayed unmistakable symptoms of extreme enthusiasm, daring and relentless optimism.

"It's easy to see how much I love the game," she said.

Hernandez, in her second year as head coach, called Cheshire the best opponent she had seen during her three years with the Southington program. She called the middle of the Rams' lineup some of the best high school hitters she had seen. The Blue Knights had trailed only once all season, and that was 1-0, so 4-0 was a most unusual deficit. She gathered her team at one point. She had a message to her nine seniors and all her players.

"I said if they thought we weren't going to score more than four runs, they were crazy," Hernandez said. "I knew we would. And we did. We haven't been a team that scored a few runs all year. We also knew they were a great team. We knew if we shut down, then it was over."

Her captains spread the message of faith in the dugout. Star pitcher Kendra Friedt relaxed and got better as the game wore on. "Do what you know what you can do," Hernandez kept telling her team. And so they did.

"She is amazing," Russo said. "She keeps us up all the time. We were losing 4-0, but she's, like 'C'mon, guys, you know what to do.' She taught us well. She knows exactly how to push us. She is the most motivational and inspirational coach I've ever had."

Russo's 15-pitch at-bat had ignited the four-run fifth.

"It felt like 25," Hernandez said. "When the fans from the other team start yelling, 'Hit it the other way' ..."

That's when you know she was up there forever.

"Bella is a ball of energy," said Hernandez, herself a ball of energy.

So it came down to the bottom of the seventh. There was Russo again igniting a rally with a single up the middle. Two singles later, the bases were loaded with one out. Lauren Zazzaro hit a pop fly to right, but, really, it barely cleared the infield. Russo tagged at third.

"We practice all year to draw a throw, no matter where the ball is hit," Hernandez said. "A lot of times you get a misplayed ball. I only wanted her to go two, three steps and draw a throw. She got excited. She went off a little farther than I hoped."

A little farther? Russo charged most of the way down the line. The throw short-hopped the catcher, squirted away and just like that Russo scored and Southington's reign was secure. Bella! Bella!

"I wanted to put the pressure on," Russo said. "I was either going to score or get into a great pickle and get back to third. If it worked, it worked, and it did."

It kicked off a mad celebration, and their coach was in the middle of it, a coach satisfied her team never splintered.

"We had a throw cut off [that should have been allowed get to the plate and cut down one of Cheshire's four runs]," Hernandez said. "The difference with our team is nobody was yelling at the player for cutting the ball. Everybody was patting her on the back. I think that says a lot about the kids. A lot of the teams we played against we've seen them get upset with each other, frustrated. We take a lot of pride in supporting each other. And you saw us stick together today."

You have to watch Hernandez in action to get a fuller appreciation. You know how Kevin Ollie can't stop himself from looking like he's guarding an opponent during UConn games? Game fit, only 28, Hernandez jumps around, waves on runners from the third base coach's box, is full of encouragement and energy. It almost seems at times she's one of the players, one of the girls. And why not? She was an All-State player, honor student and prom queen at Bristol Central, was a starter at UMass and played for the Puerto Rican national team until lupus essentially ended her career.

"You know, we really don't think about the winning streak," said, Hernandez, whose longtime boyfriend is former UConn and Colonials running back Andre Dixon. "We already broke the best winning streak in the history of the program. I told them beforehand, I truly would have been OK with a win or loss today, because this is the best team I ever coached. They were ranked seventh in the country. That's unheard of for Connecticut. I'm so proud of them. Nothing today would have changed it."

Some coaches say such things and it rings hollow. Yet if the winning streak had ended, if a three-peat didn't happen, you have to realize that Davina Hernandez, not even 30, is well equipped to keep life in perspective. She knows life's real challenges.

"Absolutely, I think I do," said Hernandez, an autism specialist, speech pathologist for Creative Interventions Birth to Three.

There is the lupus, for sure. In writing about her disease to raise money to help find a cure, she explained how a bacterial infection from eating a pear in Venezuela triggered the lupus. It got so bad at one point she had to use a butter knife to pry open her mouth. Until she started developing kidney disease, many of her symptoms actually were more consistent with Crohn's disease. Full body rashes, swelling, locked joints, confusion, memory loss, kidney damage, scarred vocal chords, barely able to walk, low doses of chemo, more than 20 medications a day, Hernandez has known it all.

Yet there is more. She is a cousin of Aaron Hernandez, former Patriots tight end and convicted murderer. How do you begin to discuss something like that publicly? For a family, it is devastating.

"I have been through a lot. My family has been through a lot in the last few years," she said. "I think it has shown me something, and it's this: You have to find something in life that you are passionate about and pour everything you have into it. That's what I've done with softball. I love it so, so much. The kids make it enjoyable for me. You see how excited I was out there. You see how much I love the game."